A Firenze (In Florence)

Beautiful Florence (Bella Firenze)

Buona sera a tutti (good evening to all),

About 3 weeks ago, Tyson and I ventured a few hours by train to Florence to celebrate our 6 year wedding anniversary. Shout out to Ty, the best husband in the world! I think that Florence ended up being a wonderful place for an anniversary because of all the delicious food, amazing art, and beautiful scenery. I'll start with my favorite subject first--

Food: Ah, the food in Florence. Tuscan food is famous for a reason. We had no trouble eating well in this city. We did visit restaurants towards the city center, but even if they were slightly touristy that did not change the fact that they were amazingly delicious!

The first restaurant we ate at was called Le Fonticine. This restaurant has been open since 1939.

Le Fonticine Ristorante

As you can see, the restaurant has a nice ambiance: low lighting, decorated with books/wine bottles/casks, and you have a good view of the cooking process.

As an appetizer, Tyson and I split the Pappardelle with wild boar sauce. Quite a tasty and unique dish. It made me feel like I was Robert Baratheon or something. An especially nice touch was the cocoa powder sprinkled on the side of the plate.

Pappardelle with wild boar sauce

Next up on my plate was this fantastic zucchini risotto. It actually shames me to admit that before we moved to Italy (8 months ago) I had never had a risotto. I honestly don't even know how that is possible. Risotto is the best.

Zucchini Risotto

When you're in Florence, you must wash your meal down with some sophisticated yet inexpensive Chianti that this region is famous for:

Chianti Classico

And of course, the absolute best part of this meal and one of my new favorite desserts is the cantuccini con vin santo (almond biscotti with a dessert wine). Dip the biscotti in the wine and enjoy! Molto buono (very good)!

Cantuccini con vin santo

The next restaurant we visited was La Cucina del Garga, for our anniversary dinner. This restaurant looked really cool; it was decorated with paintings from local Florentine artists.

La Cucina del Garga

For our main course, we tried the Bistecca Fiorentina, or Florentine steak. This type of steak is huge, so you should probably share it with someone if you can. It's also cooked one way only, which is fairly rare. I enjoyed it and I'm glad I tried it, but it was way too much steak for me. Tyson had to eat most of this one himself! I don't think he minded.

Bistecca Fiorentina

We had some chianti and candelight for added romance--

Chianti by candlelight

Finally, we finished off the night with a homemade cheesecake that was very delicate and yummy.

Homemade cheesecake

Now on to the subject of art--

Art:  One of the oldest and best museums that you can visit is the Uffizi Gallery (Galleria degli Uffizi). It's a good idea to reserve your ticket in advance if you can, since wait times can be quite long. This museum is excellent for viewing masterpieces from the Renaissance.

One of my favorite paintings is Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus", seen here:

The Birth of Venus

This next painting is "Bacchus astride a Barrel" by Rubens. I think this is a fun one:

Bacchus astride a Barrel

And this last one is "David with the head of Goliath" by Reni. I mostly just like this one because David looks like my little brother in this painting.

David with the head of Goliath

Another nice museum to go to is the Accademia Gallery (Galleria dell'Accademia). I'll admit, the biggest lure of this museum is to see Michelangelo's "David". Now, sometimes when you hear a lot about a famous work, you end up underwhelmed when you see it in person. That was not the case when we walked in and saw the David. Wow. This sculpture is awe-inspiring. When you see it in pictures, you have no idea just how large it is. Anyway, I highly recommend seeing this statue in person if you ever go to Florence.

Sights/Scenery: One nice thing to see when you're in Florence is the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge), which is especially pretty at night with the lights reflecting on the water:

Ponte Vecchio

 
Another beautiful sight is the Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore):

The Duomo

 

Inside the Duomo

Then there's the Baptistery, where people like the Italian poet Dante Alighieri and members of the Medici family were baptised:

The Baptistery

 The Boboli Gardens (Giardino Boboli) are also very nice for walking around and for viewing the city:

Boboli Gardens

A view of Florence from Boboli Gardens

 And of course, the best part about Florence--free hugs!

Well, that's all for now, my friends! The next blog will be me playing catch-up, as I have yet to write a blog on our experience in Parma.

Ciao for now,
Susie

 

A Venezia (In Venice)

Venice in early April

“Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased," Polo said. "Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.” --Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities


Out of all the cities that I have visited, Venice is without a doubt one of my most favorite, if not the favorite. Magical, romantic, and surrounded by water--it's a place I want to visit again and again. Luckily, we will only live 2 hours away from Venice for the next few years! I hope we have many occasions on which to return to this city.


Impressions:
We arrived late at night by train. Our first view was of the water and it was beautiful even by night, shimmering and reflecting all the lights from the street. We had to make our way to our hotel through winding streets that were filled with bridges. There were so many bridges! Every 5 minutes of walking and there's another bridge. Presumably this is why it's sometimes called "The City of Bridges". The city is like a labyrinth, which is part of its magic. They say the #1 thing you should do while here is get lost. Because it's like a maze, you'll find yourself wandering past the same store you saw earlier that day, but you'll still be kind of confused about where you're going. It doesn't matter, because eventually you find your way back home.

One of my favorite movies is "Labyrinth" and actually this city reminds me very much of the movie! There's the obvious labyrinth-like quality of the city, but more than that, you get the feeling that anything could happen in this city. You could see many Jim Hensen-like creations being totally at home here! All the masks and costumes that are here for Carnevale are much like the costumes seen in the ballroom scene of the movie. Venice is often foggy, which only adds to the mysterious atmosphere. Maybe when I was strolling the streets there was always the possibility that David Bowie would come strolling out of an nearby alley saying "Tra la la!". Or that this guy would invite me in for tea with the missus:

Sights:
Piazza San Marco is the main square of Venice. Napoleon (may) have called it "the drawing room of Europe." During the day, it's filled with tourists and many fat pigeons being fed by tourists. It also has numerous expensive shops lining the square where you can buy jewelry or have a bellini that costs 18 euros!

Piazza San Marco in Venice

 There is also a beautiful church in the piazza (it was under construction):

St.Mark's Basilica

A famous coffee bar in the city square is Caffe Florian. Goethe, Charles Dickens and Casanova all hung out here; it was one of the only places that served women at the time. That must be why Casanova went there! I wanted to have a bellini there (bellinis were invented in Venice), but I decided that 18 euros was a bit much for a drink.

Caffe Florian

I ended up having a bellini at a cheaper cafe, but it was still delicious and came with some little snacks which are called "cicchetti"!

Bellini and snacks

Another famous bar here is Harry's Bar which was a favorite of Hemingway:

There were also many stores where you could buy intricate masks and costumes for Carnevale. I would love to come back for Carnevale next year.

Costume Shop in Venice

Doesn't the costume shop remind you of the ballroom scene in Labyrinth?

Labyrinth Ballroom Scene

One great way to view the city is to take a water bus (vaporetto) along the Grand Canal. If I remember correctly, tickets are around 7 euros a piece. Here are some pictures I took along the Grand Canal:

Then of course, we went on the prerequisite gondola ride! Our gondolier was excellent and spoke to us in English about what we were seeing. He told us that celebrities often come to Venice, in part for the Venice Film Festival, but also because privacy is a lot easier here. Often, the only way to get to a building in a tiny canal is by private boat or gondola. Here are some pictures from our gondola ride:

Where we found our gondola

Mozart lived here for a period of time

Favorite Memory:

One of my favorite memories of Venice (and of my entire life now, no lie) was the evening of Tyson's birthday celebration. When the night first started, Tyson's mom had made plans had a fancy restaurant booked by the hotel and they had prepared a special tort for his birthday. However, when we arrived at the restaurant, things started to go wrong. We looked at the menu before going inside and they ONLY had seafood and very specific things like squid. The problem was that no one with us really liked seafood all that much and this place had no other options. We ended up having to cancel our reservation and I could tell by Tyson's face that he was irritated and disappointed that the hotel recommended this place knowing we wanted steak or something similar. It turns out this mistake was the best thing that could have happened to us. 

We started walking around town, hoping we would find another restaurant open that late and that would take us without reservations. We were starting to lose hope when I spotted a place with a trip advisor sign on the door. It was called "Al Vecio Portal" and we decided to take our chances with it. Let me tell you, this place was amazing! The service was absolutely perfect, with our attentive waiter speaking both English and Italian for us. We were made very merry by several bottle of wine. We received complimentary appetizers and when the meal was over, Tyson received a complimentary tiramisu (originally invented in Venice) and everyone at the table received free limoncello! Talk about an awesome and generous restaurant.

Here are some pictures from our feast:

Divine Ravioli from Al Vecio Portal

We sang "Tanti Auguri" for Tyson

After dinner we were all happy and laughing when we realized that the streets were completely flooded. I had heard this would happen, but it was surreal seeing it in person. Piazza San Marco was filled with water and they placed some platforms throughout the city that you could walk on to avoid the water. The whole world had turned into illusion and mirage and we couldn't stop laughing. It was raining as well and Tyson's mom eventually got hungry and started eating rain-soaked pizza from a to-go box as we tried to navigate our way to the hotel. 

The world couldn't have been more beautiful than it was that night:

Piazza San Marco flooded by night

Shaky photo of San Marco by night 

At one point, we had Tyson's brother scouting ahead to see if our hotel was around the corner. He had to walk through knee-deep water in jeans and sneakers. We couldn't stop laughing at him wading through the water and strangers on the street actually stopped to laugh at him too. By the time we found our hotel in the maze that is Venice, we were thoroughly soaked by the rain. Sometimes when something goes wrong, it's the best thing that could have happened.

And that my friends, is why Venice is one of the best and most magical places in the world! 

"If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined. Venice is--Venice is better."-Fran Lebowitz

Arrivederci,

Susie

A Roma (In Rome)

A view of Rome

Rome is a city I've long wanted to visit.Seeing such a historical city in person seemed especially cool because Tyson loves ancient Roman history and would often talk to me about it. We're both huge fans of the show "Rome" as well. Unfortunately for us, we did not see Vorenus or Pullo in Rome, but we did see many fascinating ancient sites.

First Impressions:
 Before we even got to Rome, we had some ideas in our heads about what it would be like from stories we had heard. We had heard that you had to be careful for pickpockets and scam artists. We didn't end up having any problems, but as in any large city you have to be careful and aware of your surroundings. The people can be quite in-your-face with selling roses, umbrellas and the like. I would describe Rome as being "aggressive". At one point during our trip it started raining and an umbrella seller got pushy; Tyson came to the rescue by yelling at him in Italian. I think Tyson yelling at someone in Italian and defending our group was probably the highlight of the trip for me! Haha. Funny how he sounded fluent at that moment. Despite the city's aggressiveness, is it still absolutely lovely and filled with amazing pieces of history. Now let's move on to my favorite part about traveling anywhere--the food!

The Food:
The first dish I wanted to try when we arrived in Rome was the Bucatini all’ amatriciana or as it's known in the Roman dialect, the Bucatini alla matriciana. The dish was recommended to us by an Italian friend and it consists of bucatini pasta (thicker, hollow version of spaghetti) covered in a tomato sauce and served with pecorino cheese and guanciale (cured pork cheek). This pasta tasted delicious and fresh! The guanciale basically tastes like bacon.

Bucatini all'amatriciana

Honestly, I don't think we got a chance to sample the best of Rome's cuisine because we were so busy seeing all the sights and we were in a rather touristy area. We did get to try many versions of Roman pizza, pasta, and gelato. If Tyson and I ever go back to Rome, we'll probably try to go outside of the tourist area for dinner.

The Colosseum (Wonder of the World):
 Built in 80 AD, the Colosseum is the largest amphitheater in the world. When we saw it, we all had different reactions to its' size. Tyson said "This amphitheater is smaller than I imagined it." Lindsay said "This amphitheater is larger than I imagined it." Then I said, "This amphitheater is about the size I imagined it." Though my imagination seemed fairly accurate for the Colosseum, I would be in for a surprise when we later saw the Pantheon. Anyway, the Colosseum is quite impressive in size. It's fun to look at it and imagine all the gladiatorial contests that took place here. If Rome can be called an aggressive city today, it could be called a violent city yesterday.

The Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

The Colosseum

Palatine Hill and The Roman Forum:
The Palatine Hill is one of the Seven Hills of Rome and according to Roman mythology, it is the location of the cave where Romulus and Remus were found and kept alive by a she-wolf. Several Roman emperors had palaces here, including Augustus and Tiberius. It's also a beautiful place to walk around and enjoy the scenery.

Palatine Hill

 The Roman Forum was one of my favorite things that I saw in Rome. There was just something about walking around in all that history. The Roman Forum is a plaza that contains the remnants of ancient government buildings. It was a venue both for speeches and for criminal trials. People even came there to gossip! Fun Fact: not all of the temples in the forum were built for gods--some were dedicated to people. The Romans believed that by
 dedicating the temple to themselves they became a deity. No wonder Tyson likes these guys! ;)

Roman Forum

Roman Forum

 The Pantheon:
The Pantheon is the building that was different than I had imagined it. I thought it would be much larger for some reason. The Pantheon was commissioned by Agrippa and was a tribute to all the ancient gods. This is one of the best preserved of the buildings in Rome, so it gives you a good idea of what the Roman Forum may have looked like at one point.

Pantheon Oculus

The Pantheon

Inside a crowded Pantheon

St. Peter's Basilica:
St. Peter's was absolutely breath-taking. It's one of the largest churches in the world and it feels like it. Saint Peter, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, is buried here. Seeing Michelangelo's Pietà in person was awe-inspiring. I only wish it had been less crowded so I could have gotten a better look!

St. Peter's Basilica

Inside St. Peter's

St. Peter's

Pietà

Pictures don't do it proper justice!

The Trevi Fountain:
 This is one of the most famous fountains in the world and it is lovely in person! I threw a coin into the fountain so that I would be ensured a return trip to Rome.

Trevi Fountain in Rome

Trevi Fountain

Hopefully the coin toss really did ensure a return trip to Rome, because we never got to see the Pope! I would really love to see Papa Francesco. We also need to check out the Spanish Steps next time.

Until next time ragazzi!

-Susie